Chapter 38: How Dare You Try to Take My Woman
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The laughter and merriment within the fort abruptly ceased.
“Banner Captain! It’s a red lantern—”
The auxiliary soldier quickly added, “A red lantern!”
Lin Chuan dashed up to the watchtower and gazed toward Willow Ravine Beacon Tower.
Sure enough, the red lantern was swaying in the sunlight.
“Prepare the horses!” Lin Chuan’s voice turned cold. “Warriors from Willow Village, ride with me!”
Of the five beacon towers under Ironwood Fort’s command, only Willow Ravine Beacon Tower remained more or less intact besides Ironwood Beacon Tower.
Although wolf smoke could be used to raise the alarm, it had one fatal flaw:
It could not accurately convey the direction from which the enemy was attacking.
Remembering the war dramas he had watched in his previous life, Lin Chuan had immediately devised an improved signaling system.
If the Tartars came from the north and advanced along the eastern side, they would hang a white flag. If they came along the western side, they would hang a black one.
If there were more than a hundred of them, two flags would be hung.
As for the red lantern, that was a special signal he had prepared for Landlord Zhang.
Yunniang was still within her period of mourning and could not accompany the army.
Lin Chuan had specifically arranged this secret signal at Willow Ravine Beacon Tower to guard against Landlord Zhang making his move ahead of time.
The thunder of hooves rang out as twelve riders burst through the gates of Ironwood Fort like black lightning.
The black horse beneath Lin Chuan was especially conspicuous.
It was the warhorse seized after he slew the centurion of the Black Wolf Tribe, and its wounds had already healed.
Now, with all four hooves flying, it was half a body-length ahead of the other horses.
The ten-mile road vanished beneath them in an instant.
From afar, they saw Willow Village in complete disorder.
More than a dozen villagers armed with hoes and shoulder poles were stubbornly blocking the gate to Yunniang’s courtyard.
The village headman at their front wore an ingratiating smile.
“Young Master Zhang, Yunniang is still in mourning. You can’t do this!”
“Get out of my way!”
Young Master Zhang lashed the headman’s arm with his whip.
“You old bastard, you dare stop me?”
The headman trembled with pain, but he still stood rooted to the spot.
These past few days, he had finally come to understand things.
Ever since Lin Chuan had joined the army, he had become a Banner Captain within only a few days.
Now, dozens of villagers were working under Banner Captain Lin.
The two half-grown boys apprenticed to Blacksmith Zhao had been praised for their nimble hands and efficient work. Their wages had already risen to one tael and two mace of silver.
Whenever the villagers gathered to chat, six or seven sentences out of every ten were about Banner Captain Lin.
In the past, Landlord Zhang had swaggered through the village as he pleased, and no one had dared provoke him.
But things were different now.
A Banner Captain was a military officer of rank, on the same level as the county magistrate and far above Landlord Zhang.
If he allowed Young Master Zhang to snatch Yunniang away, his days as village headman would truly be over.
So even if it cost him his life, he had to stop him!
“Young Master Zhang, please calm down.”
Enduring the pain, the headman bowed repeatedly.
“Yunniang was betrothed when she was little—to Banner Captain Lin of Ironwood Fort…”
“Bah!”
Young Master Zhang spat in his face.
“A mere Banner Captain from a frontier fort, and you think you can frighten me?”
He waved his hand sharply.
“Beat them! If they die, I’ll take responsibility!”
The servants beside him charged forward with clubs.
Before the headman could react, one of them smashed a club into his shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
The villagers beside him charged forward with reddened eyes, only to be pinned down by three or four servants and kicked and punched.
“They’re beating people!”
Someone shouted, and the villagers were finally driven into a frenzy.
Widow Wang snatched up a fire poker and thrust it between a servant’s legs. Butcher Zhang swung his slaughtering knife wildly, while even children of seven or eight picked up stones and hurled them at the servants.
Young Master Zhang had never imagined these barefoot peasants would dare fight back. His face turned livid.
“Rebellion! This is rebellion!”
He pulled a copper whistle from his robes and blew it with all his might.
The moment the shrill whistle faded, more than thirty burly men in leather armor stormed into the village entrance, every one of them carrying a blade.
They were the private soldiers secretly raised by Landlord Zhang!
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“Cut them all down!”
Young Master Zhang stamped his feet and roared.
“Kill them and dump them in the mass grave!”
The private soldiers advanced with vicious grins.
Just as bloodshed seemed inevitable, Yunniang suddenly shoved open the courtyard gate.
“Stop! I…I’ll go with you!”
Her face was as pale as paper, and her fingers clutched the doorframe until they went white.
Behind her, Madam Liu cried out and tugged at her sleeve.
“My daughter! You can’t—”
“Mother…”
Yunniang’s voice trembled.
“I can’t just stand by and watch the villagers…”
Before she could finish, a dull rumble like distant thunder rolled in from afar.
Young Master Zhang whirled around.
At the village entrance, dust billowed as twelve cavalrymen came thundering toward them.
At their head rode a commander in coldly gleaming iron armor.
It was Lin Chuan!
“It’s Banner Captain Lin!”
A half-grown boy leaped into the air and shouted, “Banner Captain Lin is here!”
The crowd erupted.
The villagers surged toward Lin Chuan in a great wave.
Eleven young men sat astride their horses, backs straight as ramrods.
They were wearing the guard armor bestowed upon them by General Chen, its metal plates flashing with a chilling radiance beneath the sun.
Who could have imagined that these farm boys who had once labored in the fields had now become Ironwood Fort’s elite warriors?
Widow Wang rose onto her toes and immediately recognized her own son.
With a loud sob, she pointed at Young Master Zhang and cried out, “Iron Egg, they’re bullying your mother!”
The moment the young man called Iron Egg heard that, rage surged through him.
His right hand tightened around the hilt of his sword.
Lin Chuan drew up the reins and swept his gaze over the wreckage strewn across the ground, finally fixing it on Yunniang, who was surrounded by servants.
“Yunniang, come here.”
He held out his hand.
Tears glistening in her eyes, Yunniang suddenly wrenched herself free of the servant holding her.
She had barely taken one step when another servant seized her arm and held her fast.
“Perish the thought!”
Wang Tiezhu drew his saber with a ringing clang.
Whoosh!
Zhang Xiaonian’s arrow flew forth and pierced the servant’s arm with pinpoint accuracy.
The tremendous force knocked the man flat on his back, and he let out a shriek like a slaughtered pig.
Taking advantage of the moment, Yunniang tore herself free and stumbled toward Lin Chuan.
Young Master Zhang stared wide-eyed at the scene before him, utterly unable to believe it.
Even Old Zhang, standing among the crowd, was dumbstruck.
That brat’s archery stance just now had been unbelievably cool!
“You—you! Who are you?” Young Master Zhang shouted, fierce in appearance but weak at heart.
Lin Chuan did not answer. He leaned down, wrapped one arm around Yunniang’s waist, and lifted her effortlessly onto the horse.
Yunniang was enclosed in Lin Chuan’s embrace. Under the eyes of the entire crowd, her face flushed crimson with embarrassment.
“Ironwood Fort? Banner Captain Lin?”
Only then did Young Master Zhang react. Grinding his teeth, he said, “You dare oppose me? Do you know who my father is?”
“What?” Lin Chuan sneered. “You came to Willow Village looking for your father?”
Wang Tiezhu could not hold it in and burst out laughing.
Young Master Zhang’s face flushed red. He could not understand where this minor frontier officer had found the courage to speak to him like that.
The private soldiers behind him shifted uneasily.
An older private soldier stepped forward and whispered, “Young master, they’re frontier troops…”
“So what if they’re frontier troops?!”
Young Master Zhang suddenly flew into a rage.
“Commander Zhang of the garrison is my cousin! Go ahead and lay a finger on me!”
Smack!
A sharp crack rang out. Young Master Zhang’s vision went black, and he toppled backward.
When his servants hurriedly helped him up, half his face was a bloody mess, and one eye had swollen shut.
“Ahhh!”
His heart-rending scream echoed across the threshing ground.
“What kind of request is that?”
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Lin Chuan flicked his riding crop, still streaked with blood.
“You with the Zhang surname, stop making trouble for yourself.”
“K-kill…kill them!”
Clutching his face, Young Master Zhang’s voice had risen to a shriek.
“Young master, they’re frontier troops…”
“Attack! Kill them!”
Young Master Zhang screamed hysterically.
“My father has plenty of silver! One hundred taels for every man you kill!”
Driven by the promise of a lavish reward, the private soldiers raised their swords and charged.
But the men they faced were the warriors of Ironwood Fort.
With a thunderous roar, all twelve riders surged forward at once.
The iron hooves pounded against the village road, making the earth tremble.
The iron cavalry crashed into the enemy formation like a raging torrent.
Wherever Lin Chuan’s blade flashed, heads flew into the sky.
Hu Dayong charged with his saber raised, using the momentum of his horse to cleave through a private soldier’s shoulder.
The remaining cavalrymen tore through the enemy ranks like wolves among sheep, their war blades sweeping left and right and raising a storm of blood.
The more than thirty private soldiers were as helpless before this iron cavalry as paper dolls.
After a single clash,
only severed limbs and wounded men moaning in agony remained on the ground.
“I don’t care who you are!”
Lin Chuan wheeled his horse around and lowered the hand covering Yunniang’s eyes.
“Anyone who dares steal my woman is looking for death!”
Blood soaked the entire length of the village road.
Young Master Zhang sat collapsed in a pool of blood, watching the private soldiers his family had spent a fortune maintaining fall to ruin in the blink of an eye.
A sudden warmth spread through his trousers.
Panicking, he pointed at Lin Chuan.
“You—you—you dare…”
A cold flash passed.
“Ah!”
A severed finger spun through the air.
Not a drop of blood stained the tip of Lin Chuan’s blade as he pressed it against Young Master Zhang’s throat.
“Do you think I dare?”
Wang Tiezhu took out a length of rope and bound the screaming Young Master Zhang.
Then he gave him a vicious kick for good measure.
All these warriors were from Willow Village. Who among them did not know about Lin Chuan and Yunniang?
In the future, every one of them would respectfully address her as Sister-in-Law!
Before, they had lacked the strength to stand against the Zhang family, and there had been nothing they could do.
But things were different now.
They were frontier troops. How dare the Zhang family lay a hand on Yunniang?
They would skin the bastard alive!
Lin Chuan tightened his arm around the trembling girl and called out to Wang Tiezhu.
“Slaughter this bastard’s horse and give the brothers some extra meat!”
Wang Tiezhu nodded, then grabbed Young Master Zhang.
“Banner Captain, what should we do with this bastard?”
“What should we do?”
Lin Chuan thought for a moment.
“Take him to the county office.”
“The county office?”
Everyone exchanged glances.
Wang Tiezhu leaned closer.
“Banner Captain, isn’t the county magistrate in league with the Zhang family?”
“Hmph! In league with them?”
Lin Chuan sneered and glanced at the man sprawled on the ground.
“I’d like to see whether Magistrate Qin dares shield him.”
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